The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus for the interior of a tank car and more particularly, to a tank car interior cleaning device having a portable cleaning apparatus with rotary jet nozzles positionable at different locations along the length thereof.
Tank cars are generally provided with a manway centrally disposed along the top of the car and a centered bottom outlet valve wherein persons or machines may be installed into a railway car through the top opening manway. Even though there are other fixtures on a tank car, such as a safety release valve, a conductor tube for top unloading, or a rupture disc, these features do not afford any assistance in the cleaning of a tank car. By only having a centered bottom outlet valve, presently all of the cleaning solution and cleaning effluent is removed from the tank car through this opening.
Moreover, much of the cleaning of general purpose commodities transported in rail tank cars are performed using high pressure washing systems with rotary dispensing nozzles mounted in a center position within the tank car. Thus, during the cleaning operation, most of the washing solution and cleaning effluent are pushed away from the bottom outlet valve, greatly reducing the cleaning efficiency. And, equally important is the fact that many of these commodities will settle out towards the ends of the tank car which makes it very difficult to remove with conventionally centered mounted cleaning systems. Also, these interior tank cleaning systems with center mounted rotary center head nozzle systems must operate at relatively high pressure and flow.
The general purpose commodities which are transported in tank cars generally range from vegetable oils, such as soybean oil and corn oil, to petroleum base products, such as fuel oil, waxes, and the like. As many of these products are transported by rail over long distances, the settling of solids towards the ends of the car increases. Thus, when cars are unloaded, many times large quantities of product are left at the ends of these cars. Many different types of car designs have been developed to help reduce the settling problems, but to date, most tank cars have flat bottoms and therefore do not drain toward the center of the tank car which is generally provided with a centered bottom outlet valve. Because of this situation, many times it requires personnel to enter the tank car in order to clean the settled solids from the ends of the tank car. Therefore, there is a need for a cleaning device which allows for the positioning of cleaning nozzles at different locations along the length of the tank car to maximize the removal of the settled solids left in the car as well as reduce the cleaning times in properly cleaning a tank car and reduce or prevent the entrance of personnel to complete the cleaning operations.